Can you claim an empty house

martinsutton

I remember reading about people who claim houses that have been stood empty for years.
We used to live in a cottage that was pretty run down, we moved out 10 years ago this month. It has been empty since which is crazy if you saw the location and now it is semi-derelict.
Is there any right to claim this house, buy it???

googler

I gather there's some obscure law that implies that if you can prove continuous, unchallenged use of the land/property for 10/12 years, then you can apply to the court/council to have it declared 'yours'.

I think there may be some proviso that you have to make 'reasonable' enquiries as to whether someone does own it at present.... i.e. if it's a derelict cottage in a farm field, there's every likelihood it belongs to the farmer.....

MissMotivation

The Local Authority can whack a Compulsory Purchase Order on an empty, derelict property if the owner cannot be traced or they refuse to bring the building into a reasonable state.

As for anyone being able to "claim" a property I'm afraid that's an urban myth! The property obviously belongs to someone.......why should you be able to "claim" it.

If you rented it then surely you know who owns it? Why don't you approach them if you want to buy it?

googler

What happens if the owner leaves it alone, goes away, and the council doesn't take any interest in it?

MissMotivation

Interesting point and one to which I do not know the answer. I've known the council do CPO's on a couple of properties before. I would imagine that a shortage of local authority housing and the length of most waiting lists means that councils jump at the chance of acquiring a (cheap) property

Ian_W

It's not an urban myth - it's called Adverse Possession - article HERE. It's not quite as easy or straightforward as googler's shorthand version but those are the basics.
Recent legislation makes it far more unlikely for registered land, though not impossible. I believe all land will be registered in the not too distant - 2012 lurks in the back of my mind - so it may effectively turn to urban legend after that.

PasturesNew

#2 is about right. If you go, move in, make it yours. Tend to it, fix it up, live in it ... then in many years' time you can apply to have it be registered as yours.

However, it isn't as cut and dried as that. Even if you could live in it the right number of years (10? 12? ... more?) then if the real/original owner did turn up and want it back, I believe now they have a better way of challenging you than they might have done in the past.

So, really, you'd probably not get away with it.

On the other hand, I believe I bought a house from somebody that had done precisely that. Found a derelict house, moved in, lived in it for 20 years, flogged it to me. I heard this from the person who used to live next door to it before it became abandoned, she'd wanted it for herself and told me the full story. She lived next door to it, wanted it, but never managed to find the original owner... he just moved in, the day after he'd knocked on her door asking if "the house next door is empty/where are the owners?".

googler

Ian_W wrote: »

It's not an urban myth - it's called Adverse Possession - article HERE. It's not quite as easy or straightforward as googler's shorthand version but those are the basics.
Recent legislation makes it far more unlikely for registered land, though not impossible. I believe all land will be registered in the not too distant - 2012 lurks in the back of my mind - so it may effectively turn to urban legend after that.

Thank you, I knew there was a technical term for it....

Debt_Free_Chick

IIRC even if you go the adverse possession route, the LR will attempt to find the legal owner and ask them if they have any objection to your claim. For registered property, finding the owner may be easy. But if unregistered, I think LR have to post public notices to say a claim for AP has been received ......

poppysarah

Squatting has just been on "the big questions" on bbc1. You should see the multiple home owners hissing at the idea of someone squatting in their empty properties.

The morality of hundreds of thousands of empty homes in the UK whilst there are massive homelessness and over crowding seems very strange.

Blacksheep1979

of course those who decide to squat could go get jobs like the rest of us, contribute something to society (rather than being 'artists') and pay their way/rent a property - yes they may not end up with a multimillion pound property in belgravia but it's the more decent/honest thing.